State sues Insys over opioid spray marketing

3 doctors also named in suit involving Subsys drug

Arizona has joined the list of states accusing Chandler-based Insys Therapeutics of improperly marketing Subsys, a powerful synthetic opioid spray.

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich contends in a civil lawsuit filed Wednesday that Insys rewarded a small number of doctors with lucrative speakers’ fees. In turn, the suit alleges, those doctors were willing to write a larger number of prescriptions for Subsys, a fentanyl spray that’s about 50 times more powerful than heroin.

Insys Therapeutics is facing several state and federal investigations for its marketing of the drug. The federal government has charged a half dozen former Insys executives, alleging the company paid bribes in the form of speaking fees to doctors who prescribed large amounts of Subsys to non-cancer patients.

In addition to Insys, the Arizona lawsuit named three top-prescribing doctors — Steve Fanto, Nikesh Seth and Sheldon Gingerich — who accounted for nearly two-thirds of Subsys’ $51.9 million worth of prescriptions dispensed in Arizona from March 2012 through April 2017.

Arizona also named as defendants Elizabeth Gurrieri, a Pinal County resident and former Insys reimbursementservices manager, and Alec Burlakoff, the company’s former vice president of sales.

The lawsuit alleges that Insys, Burlakoff and Gurrieri engaged in deceptive and unfair acts in the marketing of prescription drugs in violation of the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act.

The lawsuit additionally claims that the three doctors engaged in deceptive and unfair acts by concealing or omitting facts when prescribing Subsys to their patients.

The suit asks Maricopa County Superior Court to bar the defendants from engaging in unfair, deceptive or misleading acts; force them to pay restitution to consumers; disgorge profits; and pay the state a civil penalty up to $10,000 for each violation.